Are You Shocked At How Many Self-Service Tills There Are In Stores Now?

If I am in a store where the machine talks, I always talk back to it. Crazy, I know, but I cannot resist. I do not like them.Whenever possible, I avoid them. Many people do not like them. Our Dillons stores which are grocers Customer Service Representatives will come along, at a busy time, will check you out on the self check machine or have the person helping at that location check you out.

Hi Janey1966, I guess many people are so used to ckeckout counters being manned that they freak out once they have to use a self service till. This is understandable but people will soon get the hang of it if they start doing it regularly. I recall when I used the ATM for the very first time I almost freaked out. But now I would definitely use an ATM machine rather than queue up to be served by a flesh and blood teller. See how things can change. Anyway, the supermarket needs to install more self service tills as this is more efficient and saves cost. The staff that are 'displaced' can be trained and reassigned to other jobs which as yet cannot be taken over by machines. Issues like shoplifting and not knowing how to use the machines can easily be solved by education and monitoring. I think we cannot avoid this if we are to progress. We need to embrace change. Have a good day.

To be honest, I have friends with anxiety disorders that love these things, because they can go to the store for their necessities without having to freak out over dealing with people to do so. I think it's nice as well for when you don't have a lot of time, and there usually are't long lines to use them. As for the shoplifting issue, obviously if stores were losing that much money because of it, they'd eliminate the self-check lines or monitor them better, so it can't be too big a problem. I do feel bad over people losing jobs, but in most of the stores that I've seen, there are only a couple of self-check lanes, and many that still had cashiers. Plus people have to service the machines still and all that sort of thing.

If you have followed my activity recently you may know that I came back to UK (from Italy) and ended up working there after an absnce of 36 years! Morrisons opened up a new store in my home town and I passed the interview and got a job and was trained on checkouts, kiosk, customer service and... self-scan *UGH* In Italy I hadn't yet seen them. There are possibly some in the larger cities but not in the shops where I live - and I hope they never come either! I wouldn't use them as a customer and I loathe working with them. It is more the time that they end up out of order or make mistakes and I don't consider them to be quicker than the usual checkouts. They are so impersonal too As for shop-lifting, I believe, from the training that I had, that it is extremely difficult to get past without scanning and paying for an item because they are based on weight. I'm not going to mention the tricks that would-be shop-lifters could use with them that we learnt during training (not here anyway ) but I can say that when I have been responsable for them I did not encounter anyone even trying to outwit them. Everyone seems more concerned in not making a fool of themselves because when they block and shout out 'please wait, the assistant is coming' in that robotic voice, just about everyone turns round to see who has upset a machine

I think this is the way of the future. I know here where I am there is a few places that started doing that. Like CVS and HomeDepot. I like the idea. I do see what you're saying about shoplifting, but here in New York think they will have tons of security. Also, I doubt they will do away with cashiers all together. But they definitely will cut back. It all comes down to the almighty dollar.

I don't much like the self serve machines, either. It takes away jobs, which in turn is bad for the economy. It's probably why I couldn't get a job at the grocery store that I applied for a job. Shop lifting is a problem in all stores if there are self serve till or not. It costs the consumer and store millions every year. It's a problem but hopefully the cameras they install will help to catch thieves.

I don't like them at all. In fact I think it is a pain unless you only have an item or two. It is just a way to have to use less employees, and if we let them get away with it, that is the way it will be.

me too Janey they ha ve them in Target and Walmart now.,i will not go there I will check out with a hunman being as 'if uyou do not know how to work the silly things they are more nuisance than good. give me old fashioned customer service and nmost of them in Target do smile.Walmart has some of the s urly kind but I smile and then they will smile back too loll I can handle an ATM machine but thats it.

I also hate these sorts of tills and won't go on them at all, my hubby quite likes them, but I think they are awful and are taking away the interaction with shop staff. They are also having tills like this in the library's again very bad idea, I still go to the counter and get my books stamped unless I'm with the children and I get them to od it with me. Regarding the library you now can request a printed out slip showing you the due date back rather than the books being stamped, surely this is a waste of paper and in a way going backwards. If you odn't have this slip then you have ot just remeber when to take them back, unless you are linked ot the library via the pc. These self sevice till s don't let everything through, ie dvd's and anything else that is tagged so a staff has to ocem and help you. Bring back the corner shop, less waste as you took your basket ot shop and din't need these plastic carrier bags they now moam about us using. Bit of a rant.. sorry. Hope oyu are having a very good day

I use the self-serve if I'm in a hurry. Also, it pays to know how to use these things because they are showing up in more and more places. When you walk into a store that has ONLY self-serve, you can't shop there if you don't know how to use the system. I had a housekeeper once who refused to use self-serve gas pumps. Suddenly, there were nothing BUT self-serves around and, much to her chagrin, she had to learn how to use them. It's survival in the new tech world as much as convenience, because I do not find them that convenient when they don't recognize an item or don't recognize that you have already put it in the bag, etc. If an attendant has walked away, it takes long minutes before you can get someone's attention to clear up the mess.

Hi Janey I agree with you. The way I see it is that it is bad enough having to go isle to isle picking the stuff up, lugging the bags to the car at store and then again at home and then putting everything away. I think that is enough work. I have no interest in checking myself out, packing the bags myself and those annoying beeps can go straight to hell if ya catch my drift. I also think that I am saving someones job plus its nice to have a human to talk to rather than a cat got your tongue computer!! Down with self checkout...

I'm split on this idea. Part of me likes it because if I'm in a hurry and only grabbed one or two things, I usually don't have to wait in a long line to checkout. I just go to the self checkout. The other part of me thinks they can be frustrating at times because if something goes wrong you may have to wait for a store associate to come help you and you could end up waiting for longer than you would have if you just got in line at a normal checkout. I also don't like that one day, these could probably take many peoples' jobs. Computers do a lot now days and this could be taking the job of someone who really needs it and that's not fair to them. We're already losing jobs as it is, and with this, it may get worse.

I read some where about the chef. He should have to do that. It was so embarrassing for someone like him to do so. We don't have such service here..But if we have that it is not going to be my choice. I would rather go to cashier girl than have machine to handle this thing out..(^^)

i don't mind them. its interesting as there is a university very close to where i live, and the local small tescos, used to have massive queues during the university term times, and then they did a refit and put in loads of self service tills, about 20 i think, and its only a small shop so they didn't have space for more tills. and of course the students, and some of the rest of us, all use them, but there are actually quite a lot of staff needed to run them, at quiet times there is always one member of staff permanently there, and then when it gets busy there is two or there, permamently there, and then they have to empty the machines, and help people sort out problems, and get someone in to fix them when they go wrong, so i am not sure it does save on staff, i think it just changes the jobs they do, as there now has to be someone to fix the machines when they go wrong permanently on site, and someone else to make sure no one is pinching anything. i don't think they do save on staff, in some ways it increases them.

Hi Janey...*waves*, I often wonder if, as a cost cutting measure, by off-loading staff when they put the self serve feature in, have they actually brought their prices down? I'll bet my bottom dollar they have NOT!!

I don't use them, either. And the last time I took a book out of my local library branch, I got the impression the librarian expected me to check it out myself!

Its supposed to make things faster for us to check out and not have to wait in long lines. But anytime I have used them they always mess up and everyones waiting around while the attendant goes to the machines to fix whats wrong. It was too much of a pain. It is fun to use them though when they dont mess up. I never thought about the fact that people could shoplift this way by "forgetting" to scan things. That is a good point.

I disllike those things intensely. I feel strongly that they are another way to cut staff without passing the "savings" on to the customer. I avoid them if I possible can. Unfortunately it is not possible to avoid the stores as they all seem to have them these days. Grr.

It's all happening here too! It seems like all the big stores have a self service checkout. And I've noticed the big decline in number of people in the till too! Which doesn't really improves the service, as I see the same long line ups in manned tills, and the self service checkouts. I always have the problem or uncertainty when I'm in the self service till and I want to pass through a produce which isn't necessarily barcoded.

i knoww its rediculous. there are hardly any jobs available as it is and now theyre replacing more jobs with machines.